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Jack Warden

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Jack Warden, born John H. Lebzelter (September 18 1920 – July 19 2006), was an Emmy Award-winning American actor who typically played gruff cops, sports coaches and similar roles.

Biography

Born in Newark, New Jersey, he was the son of Jack Warden Lebzelter and the former Laura Costello. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he was expelled from high school for fighting and eventually fought as a professional boxer under the name Johnny Costello. He had 13 welterweight bouts but earned little money. He worked as a nightclub bouncer, tugboat deckhand and lifeguard before joining the Navy in 1938. He was stationed in China for three years with the Yangze River Patrol.

In 1941, he joined the Merchant Marine; but quickly tiring of the long convoy runs, he switched to the Army in 1942 where he served as a paratrooper in the elite 101st Airborne Division during World War II. In 1944, on the eve of the D-Day invasion (during which many of his friends died), Warden shattered his leg by landing on a fence during a nighttime practice jump in England. After almost a year in the hospital (during which time he read a Clifford Odets play and decided to become an actor after the end of the war), he recovered enough to participate in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945.

After leaving the military with the rank of sargeant, he moved to New York City and pursued an acting career on the G.I. Bill. He joined the company of the Dallas Alley Theater and performed on stage for five years. In 1948 he made his television debut on The Philco Television Playhouse and Studio One. He made an uncredited film debut in 1951 in You're in the Navy Now, a movie which also featured the film debuts of Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.

Warden had his first credited film role in The Man with My Face in 1951, and in 1952 he began a three-year role in the television series Mr. Peepers. Warden's breakthrough film role was his performance as Juror No. 7 - a salesman who wants a quick decision in a murder case - in 12 Angry Men in 1957.

He received a supporting actor Emmy Award for his performance as Chicago Bears coach George Halas in Brian's Song (1971), and was nominated for Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). He also had notable roles in such films as All the President's Men (1976), ...And Justice for All and Being There (both 1979), The Verdict (1982), Problem Child (1990) and its sequel (1991), and While You Were Sleeping (1995).

Warden, who married French actress Yanda Dupre in 1958 (one son, Christopher), appeared in over one hundred movies during a career which spanned six decades. His last feature film was 2000's The Replacements, opposite Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves.

The actor, who lived in Manhattan, died of heart and kidney failure and other medical problems in a New York hospital on July 19, 2006. He was 85.

Selected filmography

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